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The Government of Canada and the Government of the French Republic issued a ‘Joint Declaration on Cultural Diversity and the Digital Space’. The Declaration reaffirms the sovereign right of States to adopt policies and measures to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions in the digital space, recalls protection and promotion of cultural diversity as inseparable from human rights and fundamental freedoms, confirms support for the principle of neutrality and universality of the Internet and for the multi stakeholder governance of the Internet, and emphasizes the will to support French language cultural content in the digital space. In the spirit of multistakeholder model it affirms that the States, digital platforms, and civil society must pursue common goals to support and promote diversity of cultural expressions online, to contribute to the economic sustainability of content creators and respect for copyright, to promote quality and transparent information and the implementation of algorithms with respect to ranking, recommendations, and access to local content. In addition, the States decided to:

’ - Pursue collaboration between Canada and France on implementing the operational guidelines on the implementation of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and the Promotion of the Diversity Of Cultural Expressions in the digital environment;

- Promote direct and open dialogue between partner States, the private sector, notably digital platforms, and civil society, on their responsibilities in connection with the protection and promotion of cultural diversity in the digital space.’

The Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CDCE) welcomed the Statement. The CDCE's co-president, Bill Skolnik, stated: ‘the signal sent by Canada and France is very important; at a time where platforms and their recommendation tools do not promote a real diversity of cultural expressions. We are pleased to see that the French and Canadian governments have heard the main concerns of the cultural community. We are eager to find out more about the impact of this statement.’

According to the recently releasedWorld Report on Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) by EURid and UNESCO, IDNs now comprise 3% of the world's domains, with a total number of 8.7 million IDNs registered as of December 2016 (with a growth rate of 28% compared to the previous year). The number includes IDNs registered both in generic top-level domains and country code top-level domains, both at first and second levels. Most IDNs are registered in the Asia and Pacific region. The report concludes that IDNs help to enhance linguistic diversity in cyberspace, and that IDN scripts are an accurate predictor of the language of web content. But it also notes that there is a slow progress in addressing some of the major challenges to the mass uptake of IDNs, such as their poor usability in email, online user identifiers, and in browsers, applications, and devices.

The Canadian government made a deal with Netflix, which has agreed to invest 500 million Canadian dollars to create Canadian content. The company will establish a 'permanent production presence' in Canada, which will be the first time it has done so outside of the USA. Netflix has received criticism, as people fear that local content will disappear in the face of what some consider to be unfair competition. Yet there are concerns that the Canada-Netflix deal will not solve these issues, as 'the company has not had to abide by the same regulatory rules as Canadian broadcasters'. In addition, Quebec's Minister of Culture and Communications said he felt 'angry' and 'speechless' that the deal did not define the proportion of the money that would be dedicated to original French-language content. The government did not decide to impose special taxes on Netflix, as was suggested in January.

UNESCO has announced the publication of its Internet governance glossary in Arabic, an important tool for policymakers, academics, and Internet governance experts. Multilingual support is an important priority of many organisations, with this glossary joining other resources from ICANN (Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, French, and English), as well as DiploFoundation's An Introduction to Internet Governance (2017 edition in Spanish and English, 2016 edition in French and Thai, and earlier editions in seven other languages) and its Internet Governance Acronym Glossary (Spanish and English).

Turkey's Minister of Communication announced in a television interview that the country is creating a domestic search engine and e-mail service 'compatible with national culture and values'. The measures would be taken in response to the 'need to store user data within Turkey's borders and ensure that communications could be fully analysed domestically'. However, activists fear Turkey's complete isolation from the international community, as several global Internet companies (e.g. PayPal, Amazon, and eBay) have already been blocked in Turkey, and others (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube) are often temporarily blocked in response to political incidents and attacks.

From 12-15 December 2016 UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Expression held its tenth ordinary session. During the session, Committee’s selection of six projects recipients of the International Fund for Cultural Diversity (IFCD) in the framework of the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions were announced. The Committee adopted the preliminary draft Operational Guidelines on the implementation of the Convention in the digital environment. The draft document requires states to update their respective laws “to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions in the digital environment.” The Guidelines recognize the need to address issues such as the digital divide between developed and less developed countries when it comes to the flow of cultural goods and services, digital literacy and access to local cultural content.

Since its early days, the Internet has been a predominantly English-language medium. According to some statistics, approximately 56% of Web content is in English, whereas 75% of the world’s population does not speak English. This situation has prompted many countries to take concerted action to promote multilingualism and to protect cultural diversity. The promotion of multilingualism is not only a cultural issue; it is directly related to the need for the further development of the Internet. If the Internet is to be used by wider parts of society and not just national elites, content must be accessible in more languages.

Cultural diversity is a wide concept, and can include diversity of language, national identities, traditions and religions. The relation between the Internet (or, more broadly, information and communications technologies) and cultural diversity, in its various forms, is two-fold. On one hand, the Internet, through its ability to facilitate both exchanges between individuals with different cultural backgrounds, and access to vast resources of information and knowledge, can contribute to the promotion of cultural diversity at a global level. The Internet also offers individuals new possibilities to express themselves in ways that reflect their national and cultural identities; user-generated content therefore becomes a new modality through which the diversity of cultures is better reflected and promoted worldwide. On the other hand, and as underlined during the World Summit on the Information Society, cultural diversity is essential to the development of an inclusive information society that is based on dialogue and respect among cultures.

In the online environment, the preservation, enhancement and promotion of cultural diversity can be achieved, among others, through encouraging the development of local content, which is relevant to the culture and languages of individuals. As local content has the potential to reflect national identities and cultural specificities, having more local content online translates into additional opportunities for making the Internet a more diverse and inclusive space, and for promoting these exact identities and specificities at a global level.

One way to achieve this is by encouraging the development of user-generated content at a local level, as well as fostering digital literacy within local communities. Once local communities are able to use digital tools, they can then generate content and contribute to the promotion of their cultures and identities. Local media is also another potential promoter and distributor of local content in the digital space.

Additionally, the translation, adaptation and online distribution of existing local content, and the preservation of varied information reflecting indigenous knowledge and traditions through digital means represent other forms of promoting cultural diversity. Digital archives can also contribute to strengthening local communities, documenting and preserving local heritage. This is particularly relevant for communities that are isolated or nomadic, whose technological needs might require approaches that are entirely localised. The production and distribution of software in local languages also has the potential to increase the rates of Internet adoption.

Among the organisations working for the promotion of cultural diversity, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) instigated many initiatives focusing on multilingualism, including the adoption of important documents. The main instruments in this field are in fact adopted by UNESCO: the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001), the Charter of the Preservation of Digital Heritage (2003), and the Convention on the Protection and promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

Actors

UNESCO facilitates global advocacy and discussions on freedom of expression and relevant issues including privacy at the WSIS and the Internet Governance Forum. It further explores freedom of expression online in-depth through its flagship publication of Internet Freedom. UNESCO also defines key indicators to help stakeholders assess the local situation. Media development indicators are an analytic tool designed to assess the state of the media and measure the impact of media development programmes. Internet Universality Indicators aims to build a framework of indicators through which to assess levels of achievement, in individual countries and internationally, on four fundamental principles: human rights, openness, accessibility and multistakeholderism.

ICANN is responsible for coordinating the evolution and operation of the Domain Name System.

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ICANN is responsible for coordinating the evolution and operation of the Domain Name System. The organisation coordinates the allocation and assignment of names in the root zone of the DNS, and the development and implementation of policies concerning the registration of second-level domain names in generic top-level domains (gTLDs). It also facilitates the coordination and evolution of the DNS root name server system. When it comes to gTLDs, ICANN concludes agreements with registry operators (for the administration of each gTLD), and accredits registrars. In the case of country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), ICANN only goes as far as (re)delegating them on the basis of some high-level guidelines.

Convergence is one of the digital policy issues that the OECD is paying attention to, especially in relation t

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Convergence is one of the digital policy issues that the OECD is paying attention to, especially in relation to the challenges this phenomenon brings on traditional markets, and the need for adequate policy and regulatory frameworks to address them. In 2008, the organisation issued a set of policy guidelines for regulators to take into account when addressing challenges posed by convergence. In 2016, a report issued in preparation for the OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Digital Economy included new recommendations for policy-makers. Digital convergence issues have been on the agenda of OECD Ministerial meetings since 2008, and are also tackled in the regular OECD Digital Economy Outlook report.

The Internet Society approaches net neutrality largely from a user-centric perspective, and its work in this a

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The Internet Society approaches net neutrality largely from a user-centric perspective, and its work in this area focuses, among others, on: allowing freedom of expression, supporting user choice, and preventing discrimination. It also collaborates with businesses to develop solutions on issues such as network traffic management, pricing, and business models. Net neutrality also falls within the scope of the Internet Societyâs research and capacity development activities. The organisation has produced several policy papers and other publications touching on aspects such as open inter-networking and zero rating. Its policy brief tutorial on net neutrality provides an overview of the key considerations, challenges, and guiding principles of net neutrality.

The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) develops international standards (called recommendations) covering information and communications technologies. Standards are developed on a consensus-based approach, by study groups composed of representatives of ITU members (both member states and companies). These groups focus on a wide range of topics: operational issues, economic and policy issues, broadband networks, Internet protocol based networks, future networks and cloud computing, multimedia, security, the Internet of Things and smart cities, and performance and quality of service. The World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA), held every four years, defines the next period of study for the ITU-T.

Over-the-top services, next generation networks, the collaborative economy, and artificial intelligence are am

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Over-the-top services, next generation networks, the collaborative economy, and artificial intelligence are among the issues the European Commission is paying particular attention to. The Electronic Communications Code proposed by the Commission in September 2016 plans to introduce some level of regulation for OTT services. Encouraging the deployment of NGN networks able to better support the provision of converged services is a priority for the Commission, as part of its Broadband Strategy and Policy. The EU executive body has also issued guidelines and policy recommendations for the collaborative economy, while its Digitising European Industry strategy identified artificial intelligence and robotics are cornerstone technologies to be supported.

Instruments

Conventions

Resolutions & Declarations

The second World Internet Conference (WIC) - the Wuzhen Summit was held on 16-18 December 2015 with the theme 'An Interconnected World Shared and Governed by All'. Pursuant to discussions at the High-Level Advisory Council (HAC), the WIC Organising Committee proposed an Initiative outlining the following issues: promotion of Internet deployment and development, fostering cultural diversity in the cyberspace, sharing the fruits of Internet development, ensuring peace and security in cyberspace, and improving the global Internet governance.

Other Instruments

Following a United Nations General Assembly resolution adopted in December 2001 (Resolution 56/183), a World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was launched, with the aim to contribute to the development of a unitary global vision on an inclusive and development-oriented information society. The summit was held in two phases: the first phase took place in Geneva, from 10 to 12 December 2003, and the second phase took place in Tunis, from 16 to 18 November 2005. Although a UN summit, WSIS was not limited to governmental participation, but it also welcomed representatives of the private sector, the technical community, and the civil society.

The Tunis Agenda is one of the two final documents adopted at the conclusion of the second phase of WSIS. The document contains provisions on: financial mechanisms for bridging the digital divide, Internet governance and related issues, and the implementation and follow-up of the WSIS outcomes.

One of the main characteristics of the Agenda is that it deals extensively with the concept of Internet governance (IG). Firstly, it provides a working definition of Internet governance, as proposed by the Working Group on Internet Governance: 'the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet’. This definition outlines two key principles that are also separately underlined in the document: that Internet governance encompasses not only technical issues related to the management of the Internet technical resources (names and addresses), but also public policy issues; and that the various stakeholders (private sector, civil society, the academic and technical communities) have roles and responsibilities in Internet governance.

Secondly, the Agenda lays the foundations for the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), created a forum for multistakeholder dialogue on public policy issues related to key elements of Internet governance (such as cybersecurity, cybercrime, spam, freedom of expression, privacy and data protection, digital divide, multilingualism). In addition, it introduces the concept of ‘enhanced cooperation’, aimed to enable governments to carry out their roles and responsibilities in international public policy issue pertaining to the Internet, and called for the launch of a ‘process towards enhanced cooperation’.

Although the Tunis Agenda is not a legally binding instrument, it outlines a series of recommendations regarding the implementation of the WSIS objectives and action lines at national, regional, and international level. Some of these include: building national e-strategies as part of the broader national development plans, using bilateral and multilateral technical assistance programmes, involving UN regional commissions and UN agencies in the implementation process, and the participation of all stakeholders in the implementation activities. An overall review of the implementation of WSIS outcomes was also called for 2015.

The Agenda was endorsed by the UN General Assembly through its Resolution 60/252 from April 2006.

Activities undertaken as part of the follow-up and review of the implementation of WSIS outcomes include: the designation of facilitators and co-facilitators of WSIS action lines (mostly UN agencies), the creation of the UN Group on the Information Society (tasked with facilitating the implementation of the WSIS outcomes), meetings on the action line facilitators, the WSIS Forums (held annually since 2009).

In December 2015, a UN General Assembly High Level Meeting was held in New York, and it was dedicated to an overall review of the implementation of the WSIS outcomes, as required by the Tunis Agenda. The meeting concluded with the adoption of an inter-governmentally agreed outcome document which, among others, reaffirmed the commitments set out in the Tunis Agenda, acknowledged progress made over the previous 10 years, and called for more efforts in bridging the digital divide and strengthening the information society. A new high-level meeting on the overall review of the implementation of the WSIS outcomes is planned for 2025, and it is aimed to take stock of progress and identify both areas of continued focus and challenges.

Publications

The latest edition of glossary, compiled by DiploFoundation, contains explanations of over 130 acronyms, initialisms, and abbreviations used in IG parlance. In addition to the complete term, most entries include a concise explanation and a link for further information.

The book, now in its sixth edition, provides a comprehensive overview of the main issues and actors in the field of Internet governance and digital policy through a practical framework for analysis, discussion, and resolution of significant issues. It has been translated into many languages.

Digital inclusion can deliver broad economic and social benefits, but unconnected and underserved communities risk falling further behind. This report addresses barriers to digital inclusion in Latin America, including coverage, affordability, digital skills and local content

This document, produced as part of the Internet Governance Forum 2014, addresses the ways in which an enabling environment can be created for the development of local content, using examples of best practices from different countries.

This report shows that there is a strong correlation between the development of network infrastructure and the growth of local content, and that more developed local Internet markets tend to report lower international prices for bandwidth.

Moving forward, he explained the very concept of universal acceptance. He said that today there is a huge debate on whether the Internet is reaching everyone and whether everyone has the same possibilities when using it, given the differences in language, characters, and writing systems. Therefore, universal acceptance is not only a problem of internationalised domain names (IDNs) and domain names, but also that of search engines, e-mail address internationalisation, and similar issues that we might miss from this conversation.

The first panellist, Mr Patrik Fältström (Chair, Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)), started his presentation by trying to elaborate on what is the actual problem that was discussed. Everything started with the question of how to bring more people online. In order to do so, we need to enable people to communicate, and that means to create and share audio, video and text. It is really important to enable people to enter information in their own language, which requires good script and character support in all applications. Also, providing people with the possibility to translate and transform information with the help of text to speech or speech to text, and to use it in multiple languages, would contribute to higher participation. This would be of great help to people with disabilities.Hence, among all discussions about domain names, search engines and other issues, we should not forget this bigger picture when we speak about universal acceptance.

The next panellist,Mr Dušan Stojičević (Marketing Director for Eastern Europe, Gransy) stated that the problem is not with standards, but rather the lack of implementation of standards. From his professional experience, he stated that the number of people who are interested in using Cyrillic domain names is still very low. In addition, there is also the fact that there are insufficient financial resources for the registries and registrars to invest in IDNs. In the end, he still thinks that the biggest challenge is in people’s habits and the fact that people are used to standard keyboards and scripts. Hence, there is no significant demand for these in local languages.

The discussion continued with questions from the participants. Once more, the problem of implementing standards that have been in place for a long time, was emphasised. Representatives from Georgia stated that they have a very low number of people using IDNs. Moreover, given the current technical issues with the implementation of standards and scripts that some of the participants raised, it is evident that this problem requires more patience and work. the session was concluded with the thought that we might have a ’chicken and egg’ due to the lack of deployment in the practice. In the end, we should have in mind that preserving diversity on Internet is what makes it open and this is why IDNs are important.

IGF 2016 Report

The need to foster cultural diversity and multilingualism on the Internet emerged in many sessions at IGF 2016. For the Internet to enable inclusive and sustainable growth, it is essen- tial that Internet users be able to create and access content, and have software tools in their own languages and scripts (Enhancing Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in Cyberspace - WS19). Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) can contribute to a more diverse cyberspace, but problems related to universal acceptance (e-mail addresses in non-Latin scripts, recognition of IDNs by search engines) still need to be addressed (Enabling Every User with a Unique Internet Culture ID - WS144).

Moreover, countries need to develop favourable and dynamic policies to encourage and protect local content. Infrastructure and access to digital tools are also necessary to support both the devel- opment of and access to local content (Local content and sustainable growth - WS22).

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